Legislators were largely left out of decisions the Jindal administration made in response to Congress’ unexpectedly slashing the state’s Medicaid financing last month. Now state officials are encouraging them to get involved and come up with solutions, including partnering with community hospitals. Looming in the background is the possibility of the sale or lease of state medical facilities to private companies. “We’re going to put everyone in a room and say, ‘What’s next?’ ” says Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, about a planned meeting of the Acadiana delegation with LSU, DHH, Louisiana Hospital Association and medical society leaders.
—Baton Rouge District Judge Bill Morvant declared Thursday he has entered the Supreme Court race and may have the inside track on the coveted endorsement by LABI, which is expected today. He hopes to have it, anyway. “Anybody without it probably will be behind the 8-ball,” Morvant says. The choice of the business group would come with contributions from its four regional PACs and a fundraising entrée into the business community statewide. “It will not be a local race,” says a New Orleans attorney. Along with Morvant, four 1st Circuit Court of Appeal judges have interviewed with LABI: John Michael Guidry (the lone Democrat), Toni Higginbotham, Jeff Hughes and Duke Welch—as have district judges Guy Holdridge of Gonzales, Tim Kelley of Baton Rouge and former Baton Rouge District Attorney Doug Moreau.
They said it: “We call it scholarships. The teacher unions call it four-letter words.” —Gov. Bobby Jindal, speaking at the Aspen Institute on the state voucher program, in The Advocate
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
